Here are the major road projects Prince William County officials requested funding for this week

Commuters on the congested Route 28 corridor are one step closer to getting relief.

In a request to the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA), Prince William County leaders submitted a list of 11 projects be funded, to include at least $200 million in long-awaited improvements to Route 28 between Manassas and Fairfax County. The NVTA, created by legislators in 2013 with a sales tax hike, called for projects to be funded in its first-ever six-year funding cycle where some $1.5 billion will be awarded for transportation projects.

The Route 28 improvement project is a priority, with up to $3 million going first to fund a required environmental impact study, and later funds being used for project design and construction.

Officials held a series of public hearings in September to discuss improvement options for the corridor which include creating a Manassas bypass, by extending Godwin Drive from Sudley Road to Route 28 at the Fairfax County line, or, the most expensive option, widening Route 28 in Yorkshire.

“What we need on route 28 is more capacity,” said NVTA Chairman Marty Nohe, who also sits on the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, representing the Coles District where the Route 28 improvements would take place. “Essentially, we need a bigger pipe for traffic to flow through.”

Fairfax County officials are working on a $68 million project to widen Route 28 from the Bull Run to Route 29.

A widened Route 28 in Prince William could open to traffic as early as 2024.

Also on the list was a funding request to convert a series of intersections on another Manassas bypass – Route 234 / Prince William Parkway — from signalized intersections to grade-separated interchanges. These projects also rank high on NVTA’s project review list.

“With Route 234, the road is big enough, but there are too many places that you have to stop at lights,” added Nohe.

Prince William County transportation officials hope to obtain funding to redo intersections at Route 234 at Brentsville Road, at University Boulevard, Sudley Manor Drive and Wellington roads, and at Clover Hill Road.

These new improvements would join a new, $145 million diverging diamond intersection that will be built to replace a traffic signal at Route 234 / Prince William Parkway at Balls Ford Road. Balls Ford Road will also be widened from two to four lanes from Devlin Road east to Sudley Road.

The diverging diamond will be funded, in part, with a $579 million grant from the operators of the soon-to-be-built Interstate 66 E-ZPass Express Lanes. The interchange project ranked the highest on a list of projects vying for the grant funding, according to Nohe, whose NVTA ranked a long list of projects from Arlington and Fairfax counties, Virginia Railway Express, and the Potomac and Rappahannock Transportation Commission.

Nohe said he’s confident the interchanges would be constructed, albeit in phases, with new junctions reconstructed first at Brenstsville and Sudley Manor Road, with junctions at University Boulevard and Clover Hill Roads ranking lower on the priorities list.

The proposed interchanges have not been designed, so it’s unclear how much they’ll cost, or if they’ll be constructed as diverging diamond interchanges to match Balls Ford Road, and a newly reconstructed junction at I-66 and Route 15 in Haymarket.

Not related to Bi-County Parkway

This series of interchanges have been on Prince William County Transportation Director Rick Canizales’ radar for years. On Tuesday, he assured Brentsville District Supervisor Jeanine Lawson that these interchanges “have no relation” to the Bi-County Parkway. Now removed from the county’s comprehensive plan, that road would have converted Route 234 / Prince William Parkway into a limited access highway, linking I-95 in Dumfries to an area in Loudoun County near Dulles Airport.

Nohe echoed Canizales statements in an interview with Potomac Local on Wednesday.

Other improvements

The county also requested funds to extend Summit School Road near the Sentara Lake Ridge Medical Center to Telegraph Road. Then, Telegraph Road would be widened from two to four lanes, connecting drivers with the Horner Road Commuter Lot.

It’s a competitive funding process where Prince Willima’s projects will be weighed with other jurisdictions submissions. In the coming weeks, officials in Prince William and other jurisdcitions will be asked to rank the projects on thier lists from greatest to least importance.

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